http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/?p=79 In 1998, I made a pilgrimage to the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, seeking enlightenment. As program director of knowledge management at the World Bank, I’d stumbled onto the power of storytelling. Despite a career of scoffing at such touchy-feely stuff—like most business executives, I knew that analytical was good, anecdotal was bad—my thinking had started to change. Over the previous few years, I’d seen stories help galvanize an organization around a defined business goal.
In the mid-1990s, that goal was to get people at the World Bank to support efforts at knowledge management—a pretty foreign notion within the organization at the time. I offered people cogent arguments about the need to gather the knowledge scattered throughout the organization. They didn’t listen. I gave PowerPoint presentations that compellingly demonstrated the importance of sharing and leveraging this information. My audiences merely looked dazed. In desperation, I was ready to try almost anything. Then in 1996 I began telling people a story: In June of last year, a health worker in a tiny town in Zambia went to the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and got the answer to a question about the treatment of malaria. Remember that this in Zambia, one of the poorest countries in the world, and it took place in a tiny place 600 kilometers from the capital city. But the most striking thing about this picture, at least for us, is that the World Bank isn’t in it. Despite our know-how on all kinds of poverty-related issues, that knowledge isn’t available to the millions of people who could use it. Imagine if it were. Think what an organization we could become.
This simple story helped World Bank staff and managers envision a different kind of future for the organization. When knowledge management later became an official corporate priority, I used similar stories to maintain the momentum. So I began to wonder how the tool of narrative might be put to work even more effectively. As a rational manager, I decided to consult the experts.
At the International Storytelling Center, I told the Zambia story to a professional storyteller, J.G. “Paw-Paw” Pinkerton, and asked the master what he thought. Imagine my chagrin when he said he didn’t hear a story at all. There was no real “telling.” There was no plot. There was no building up of the characters. Who was this health worker in Zambia? And what was her world like? What did it feel like to be in the exotic environment of Zambia, facing the problems she faced? My anecdote, he said, was pathetic thing, not a story at all. I needed to start from scratch if I hoped to turn it into a “real story.”
Was I surprised? Well, not exactly. The story was pretty bland. There was a problem with this advice from the expert, though. I knew in my heart it was wrong. And with that realization, I was on the brink of an important insight: Beware the well-told story!
More musings… In his most recent book The Secret Language of Leadership and his other books, Steve Denning explains how a simple story could communicate a complex multi-dimensioned idea, not simply by transmitting information as a message, but by actively involving the listeners in co-creating the reality of the idea in the context of the particular organization where the story was being told. Their active participation as listeners helps reinvent the organization and create new identities for the organization and themselves. In this way, the story embodied the concept of knowledge management, and was able to transfer knowledge.
The experience of using the oral culture of a modern organization to embody and transfer knowledge has antecedents in the past.
The force of organizational storytelling
Using the magic of narrative to lead from wherever you are and handle the principal challenges facing all leaders today.
There are good reasons why business communications are persistently analytic. Analysis is the key to good theory, precise thinking, logical proof, sound argument, and empirical discovery. Analysis cuts through the fog of myth, gossip and speculation to get to the hard facts. Its strength is its objectivity, its impersonality, its very heartlessness: it goes wherever the observations and premises and conclusions take it. Analysis isn’t distorted by the feelings or the hopes or the fears of the analysts: analysis gets us relentlessly to the bottom line.
Yet the very strength of analysis — its heartlessness — can be a drawback when it comes to communicating with human beings. Analysis might excite the mind, but its heartlessness is hardly the route to the heart. Yet it is the heart that we need to reach to get people enthusiastically into action. Endless mind-numbing cascades of numbers can result in dazed audiences and PowerPoint burnout. At a time when corporate survival often entails disruptive change, leadership is about moving and inspiring people — often to do things that they are not by habit or by predisposition inclined to do: just giving people a reason simply does not work.
Hence the current business interest in storytelling. Good business cases are developed through the use of numbers, but they are typically approved on the basis of stories. A story can translate dry, abstract numbers into compelling pictures of how the deep yearnings of decision influencers can come true.
How can a tiny narrative communicate a complex idea? The thing is impossible if we adopt the conventional or media view of communications which views communications as the sending of a message from a communicator to a recipient.
In fact, it occurs by exploiting the interactive nature of communication. Whereas abstract communication minimizes speaker-listener interaction in deference to the "message" being sent, narrative communication maximizes the interaction between speaker and listener by encouraging the listener to imagine the story and to live it vicariously as a participant. Because the listener imaginatively recreates the story in his or her own mind, the story is not something foreign, not something perceived as coming from outside, but rather something that is perceived as part of the listener's own identity. There is no knowing-doing gap, because the idea is the listener's own.
In his books, //The Springboard// (2000), The Leader's Guide to Storytelling (2005) and The Secret Language of Leadership (October 2007), Steve Denning explains how storytelling is able to catalyze action in modern change-resistant organizations. Telling an appropriate story helped spark thoughts among the managers and employees about a different kind of future both for the organization and themselves as individuals.
"Just think if we were able to operate in this way, and get these kinds of benefits at that kind of speed! Wouldn’t that be exciting! What kind of organization we could become!"
By stimulating the listeners to think actively about the implications, they can understand what it will be like to be doing things in a different way. When a springboard story does its job, the listeners’ minds race ahead, to imagine the further implications of elaborating the same idea in other contexts, more intimately known to the listeners. In this way, through extrapolation from the narrative, the re-creation of the change idea can be successfully brought to birth, with the concept of it planted in listeners’ minds, not as a vague, abstract, inert thing, but an idea that is pulsing, kicking, breathing, exciting – and alive.
Often the changes that need to be implemented in large organizations are complicated, and have many dimensions and facets. Not all of them are fully understood when the management embarks on the change process. Resistance is inevitable when a bold new change idea emerges. The dilemma for managements in such situations is how to turn resistance into enthusiasm when even they only partially understand the idea themselves. Often the attempt to explain the idea can kill enthusiasm before it even begins implementation.
Denning's books show how stories can avoid this dilemma by having the listeners themselves fill in the blanks as the change process proceeds.
Much has been written about the use of stories to preserve knowledge and culture. This book however is not so much about using stories to preserve organizations: it is about using stories to change them.
It’s about a particular kind of story, which is christened the springboard story. By a springboard story is meant a story that enables a leap in understanding by the audience so as to grasp how an organization or community or complex system may change.
A springboard story has an impact not so much through transferring large amounts of information, but through catalyzing understanding. It can enable listeners to visualize from a story in one context what is involved in a large-scale transformation in an analogous context. It can enable them to grasp the idea as a whole not only very simply and quickly, but also in a non-threatening way. In effect, it invites them to see analogies from their own backgrounds, their own contexts, their own fields of expertise.
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Stevenson1.html Strategic Storytelling for Business Presentations By Doug Stevenson People remember the stories! You can give a presentation that’s a dazzling display of your vast intellectual knowledge, but when all is said and done, people remember the stories.
Studies about how adults learn show that memory is formed when a person’s attention is engaged over a sustained period of time, and it is enhanced when auditory, visual and kinesthetic senses are stimulated.
In his book, The Owners Manual for the Brain, Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D. addresses the three stages of memory formation. The immediate memory is like a buffer area that can hold thousands of pieces of data for two seconds or less. The short-term memory is a like a broker that selects chunks of data to remember, but it takes about eight seconds of attention to add one new chunk of short-term memory. A new chunk of short-term memory becomes long-term memory when your attention is engaged over a sustained period of time.
When you listen to a good storyteller, you hear the story with your head, heart and soul. You’re not a passive listener - you’re an active participant. As the storyteller is relating his or her experience, you’re experiencing it as if it were your story. You feel what the storyteller feels, and see what the storyteller sees. You memorize and retain the chunks of information contained in the story because you see the images, hear the sounds, and feel the emotions. The story engages your attention on many levels, for a sustained period of time, so when the storyteller makes the point, the learning sticks. Storytelling transcends an intellectual experience.
When you cram a ton of information into a training session or presentation, you’re doing a data dump on your audience! The problem is, they can’t process your data as fast as you can dump it. Their brain gets stuck in immediate and short-term memory mode. You dump the data on them and they dump the data into their mental trash bin. Nothing sticks. Yet, have you ever sat in an all-day training and had a hard time remembering anything the speaker said, but still you were able to go back to the office and re-tell their stories? This is because stories stick.
In my Story Theater Retreats and Workshops, I perform stories as tutorials. In one story, I act out my experience when I went streaking in the summer of 1974 in Westwood, California and got arrested, naked, by the LAPD cops. When I’m finished performing the story, I ask my students to describe what they experienced. Some say they watched me streak past them as if they were standing in the movie theater line on the sidewalk. Some describe my 1962 Volkswagen bus with a psychedelic paint job or the sound of the cop’s sirens and the flashing lights. Some describe anxiety or embarrassment, and some even say they felt the hot and humid summer night air as they ran right along with me.
For a story to come alive and captivate an audience, the content, structure and performance must be crafted strategically. The story itself is only a beginning. Storytelling is an art and the storyteller, the artist. And, all artists need tools. The actor needs a stage, props and costumes. The musician needs her instrument. The artist needs his brushes and paint. And the storyteller needs form, content and presentation skills and techniques. The great storytellers distinguish themselves not just by their talent, but also by their dedication to their craft. They think about their stories constantly. They structure the sequence and flow of the story, and experiment to find the right words that are genuinely theirs. They work on a gesture or movement until it is just right. Then they rehearse it over and over until it becomes second nature – the line and the gesture effortlessly married together. They incorporate acting skills and turn their stories into little theatrical events.
In order to have an end result that is amazing, you will have to spend many hours working on your story. Your story must be worked and re-worked, formed and re-formed. You’ll want to find the drama and comedy of your stories and let them shine. You’ll create a combination of “show and tell” to fully engage the audience – narrating some parts of the story, and “stepping into” the present moment of other parts to act them out. You’ll want to make your content come alive with Story Theater!
As a speaker, trainer or teacher, if you want your points to stick, then stories are your super glue. Use stories to make a point, teach a lesson and move people to action. Make your stories truly memorable by making them come alive with Story Theater. People remember the stories.
When compared to non-narrative text, stories are deeper and richer, more compelling, and more memorable. Stories tap anancient resource -- the power ofsocial dynamics.
For example, stories are full of information because they draw on common understood truths to convey more information than is obvious. A story that "engages" people means that the listener or reader adds a lot of knowledge and information, so that the story "as experienced" can be extremely rich in terms of the total knowledge "activated" or "accessed" compared to what is explicitly mentioned.
Consider this example. "My sister-in-law went shopping at Nordstrom's at Christmas time. Later, they discovered that their packages had been lost or stolen...." Notice how many knowledge propositions are already implied! 1 I am married (or I have a brother/sister and he/she is married). 2 I have a sister-in-law. 3 I heard this story from my sister-in-law. We communicate. 4 She went shopping at Nordstrom. 5 This is probably going to be one of those "amazing service" stories about Nordstrom. 6 The shopping was at Christmas time. 7 My sister-in-law's family celebrates Christmas. 8 There is a lot that is inferred because of what is NOT said. E.g., my sister-in-law is not in the hospital, or I probably would have mentioned this already. 9 My sister-in-law was not shopping alone. 10 She was not held up at gunpoint -- "Later, they discovered...." ...and much much more. With each word, new ripples are created into the reader's consciousness. Notice how the story is much shorter than the list of propositions following it. This is because narrative is deeper and richer than other modes of knowledge transfer. Stories are often a more compact way to express an important idea.CONCLUSION
Not only is the story above much shorter than the list of propositions following it, but it is also easier to understand and easier to remember. When we read the story, we create an image in our minds that is whole and internally consistent, and we can use that image as a setting for any points that are made.
Also compare the story fragment and the list of propositions on how interesting they are. Most people "warm up" to stories. Just watch what happens after a speaker finishes a story and goes back to his or her prepared speech. There is usually a distinct rise in fidgeting when the story is clearly over.
If you are visiting this website, I am sure that you are already convinced of the power a good story holds, but how do we convince the business world that a good story holds more power and is more memorable than hearing and/or reading a descriptive paragraph that relates to an accomplishment, a procedure, a product, etc.? This became so evident recently when I was part of a committee judging nominations for the Regional Company and/or Organization with the Best IT (Information Technology) Training Program. There were several criteria that we were to grade. The nominees had been asked to write a 250 word paragraph for each of the seven criteria (because all of them were wordier than 250, we gave them a break in this respect). Most of the criteria were straightforward and asked for descriptions.I could hardly wait, however, until we reached the final one: "Do you have any great Success stories?"
You can imagine my disappointment to find that only one of the nine nominees told us a story. The others blabbed on about profits and accomplishments, etc. The one with a true and moving story - about a young man who was helped by the training to get a job and a scholarship that turned his life around - won our vote. The sad part is that I know that every one of the companies or organizations have plenty of success stories. They just don't know how to tell them. As storytellers, how can we help them?
Don't call it "storytelling." Even though publications all over the nation - and even the world - are writing about the companies, organizations and trainers who are making use of the power of storytelling, very few of the upper echelon will react well to our telling them that they need "storytelling." So many people have the wrong perception of what storytelling entails. They think it is a quaint event that is performed for children (usually in libraries and often is only the reading of books to the very young). We can tell them that the World Bank now uses storytelling for information sharing, and that a company called EduTech produces a publication called ASK for NASA that consists of employee stories. Todd Post, editor, writes, "The success we've had with it (ASK) has allowed us to examine our own problems holding onto knowledge. Right there in front of our noses was a successful model to emulate. Since we knew how to do storytelling for others, why not give it a shot at home?" They then created What You Know, which is EduTech's own storytelling magazine. Read more about them and their storytelling by clicking HERE.
Even so, storytelling can be a hard sell. I once had a boss who when I told him that East Tennessee State University offers a graduate degree in storytelling, he laughed and asked if the thesis consisted of telling "The Three Little Pigs" correctly. At least, I dropped him as a boss, but that didn't promote the storytelling needed by that organization. So, how can we convince companies and organizations to make use of the gold produced by a great story?
We have to use all of our imagination and love of storytelling to work it into meetings, marketing and every day encounters. I am not suggesting that we act underhanded - just a little bit sneaky. We all know that the stories are there. I suggest taking a small notebook to work or to a company you know well (you may do some freelance work for them or know others who do) and start writing down the casual stories you hear at the water fountain, on the way to an appointment, at lunchtime and in the elevator. Start asking those who have worked a long time at the company/organization about the history - how it was when they were hired and why they have stayed there. When awards are presented, interview those who receive them - get the full story.
Start a small booklet of good company/organization stories. Name the heroes and heroines. Ask others you trust to write up some stories for it. The stories should not be long, but all should include the beginning status quo, a character and/or characters, the crisis or challenge (doesn't have to be huge or life shattering), the climax and resolution, and how the original status quo was changed. Details are important, but should not be overwhelming. With all of the easy-to-use desktop programs available today, you can put together a small booklet filled with these stories and give a copy to many of your peers. You will be surprised how, once the word is out, how many other people will ask for a copy. It may be even time to start a small magazine or company newsletter that consists of stories.
Before a meeting starts (if you have any way of setting agenda items), ask if everyone would share a quick incident that they have recently encountered, what happened and if it changed their thinking and/or approach. Or ask what was the funniest happening last week. I know it may take some time to get this off the ground - and, I don't suggest forcing everyone to take part in the beginning. You will be amazed that if you can continue this quick story sharing introduction, those who haven't contributed before will start having a story to tell and everyone will look forward to this. I know a company that started adding a half an hour to the end of their weekly sales meetings for a story sharing session. This soon became the most popular part of the meeting and, as we storytellers know, the most valuable part of the meeting.
Once the storytelling starts to take hold - and it will if you are persistent and keep it going - the next step would be to call a group of the most enthusiastic story lovers and tellers together to work on the "Grand Narrative" of your company and/or organization. This will define what your group is all about. What describes the mission and goals in a clear and understandable way? For example, before the World Bank became known as an information sharing entity, it was known as a lending organization (which was facing great challenges in that capacity). It is OK to redefine your "Grand Narrative" even if you are a large, small, or even a one-person company.
Now is the time to take your storytelling plan to upper management. Convincing reasons that you can propose for capturing and using stories are to accomplish any of the following: • Share knowledge for succession planning. • Promote team development to enhance productivity. • Exemplify values to build community. • Capture lessons learned to develop best practices. • Prompt action to change the company or organization. • Record the past to preserve corporate heritage.
We all have been told stories in our lifetimes since we werequite young. There is a common notion that the role of storytelling is primarily constrained to bedtime or play time for children. Recentlyit has become morepopular to extend role of storytelling and the lable of storyteller to includethe work of Hollywood filmmakers. "Really,I'm just a storyteller," we might hear Spielberg say in an interview onE!."Me too!" responds Scorsese.
The true role of story and storytelling is much greater, older, and elementalthan Hollywood. Thehuman animal is a narrative animal. We are made of stories. We speakthem, understand them, remember them, and live them. In the canonicalimage of village people sitting around a fire at night,everybodyis listening to the storyteller tell the tales of the day, the season or ofthe people themselves. The tales were about life itself – living it,surviving it and ending it; whether historically or metaphorically. And sincestories are such an important part of our very nature, we have no choicebut to apply this natural and powerful tool to entertainmentas well as to the other parts of our lives, like business.
Story and storytelling are tools like any other - a pencil, a computer. Nolonger behind the scenes, an increasing number of professionals are discoveringthe power and applicability of story proficiency for business management, knowledgemanagement, organizational development, coaching, sales, and software interfacedesign. Inlarge and small corporations, storytelling is not just for the marketing andlegal departments anymore. Some of the theoretical background for these uses of story comes from the scientific study of narrative,known as narratology;somecomes from leaders, researchers and visionaries of the business world likeIBM'sDave Snowden; somecomes fromcomputer science; and somecomes from common experience,common sense, and a common understanding of humanity.
The links below represent a sampling of professionals, writers, researchers,and organizations that are furthering the investigation and application ofstory in business and other organizational contexts. The list is in noparticular order and is not exhaustive. It is offered as merelya beginning taste of howpeopleare applyingstoriesandnarrativeresearchtovariousprofessional endeavors. Stories are not just for bed time, but forallthe time.
An essay on why storytelling should be an integral part of the education of all children.
We all know that stories are fun. We all know that children love listening to stories. A well told story can make children laugh, squeal, gasp or cry. In addition to being entertaining, however, quality storytelling is also beneficial to the cognitive development of children. It is my belief that story telling, not just story reading, should be a daily part of the education of all children. Here’s why.
In a large study following children from pre-school through elementary school, Dr. Wells (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and his colleagues found that the most powerful predictor of their school achievement was the amount of time spent listening to interesting stories. Wells believes that such experiences teach children first about the way stories (and later, other things they read) are structured. Even more important, however, is understanding words alone as the main source of meaning. Since the words do not come with pictures attached, the child must come to grips with "the symbolic potential of language" – its power to represent experiences independent of the context of the here and now. Any activity that helps children use their brains to separate from the "here and now", to get away from pictures and use words to manipulate ideas in their own minds, also helps them with the development of abstract thinking. Experiences with pictures attached, even when they involve looking at picture books and learning new words, are not as valuable, says Wells, because the child needs to learn "sooner rather than later" to go beyond just naming things that can be seen. He concludes: "For this, the experience of stories is probably the ideal preparation. Gradually stories will lead children to reflect on their experiences and, in so doing, to discover the power that language has, through its symbolic potential, to create and explore alternative possible worlds with their own inner coherence and logic. Stories may thus lead to the imaginative, hypothetical stance that is required in a wide range of intellectual activities and for problem-solving of all kinds." (Emphasis added)
From the book "Endangered Minds" By Jane M. Healy, Ph.D.
The symbolic potential of language.
The above quote emphasizes that it is the symbolic nature of language that is so important to developing thinking skills in children. When you say the word "tree" all English speakers understand that this particular collection of sounds refers to a leafy, growing thing with a trunk. We can conjure up a picture of a tree in our minds even though we are not actually looking at one. When the word "tree" is put into context with other words (as when a whole sentence is spoken) the brain must use these symbols (the words) to create a logical whole. Stories require an even greater ability to organize and make sense out of these abstract symbols (words). It is this ability to work with the abstract that forms the basis of all critical thinking.
In storytelling, the stimulus of words brings about the production of inner images, an extraordinarily creative play involving the entire brain. Each new story requires a whole new set of neural connections and reorganizations of visual activity within - a major challenge for the brain. . . . So neural potential goes unrealized and development is impaired - unless storytelling and play are provided on a regular basis.
From "The Magic Child." By Dr. Joseph Chilton Pearce
We learn to speak before we learn to write.
It is important to recognize, too, that written language is yet another level of abstraction, in the sense that writing is actually a set of symbols designed to represent speech. So when you read the word "tree" you understand that each letter represents a spoken sound, and that the collection of sounds indicated by those letters stands for the spoken word "tree", which refers to a leafy, growing thing with a trunk. In the development of civilization as well as in the development of every individual, oral language must come before written language. Therefore, before children can be expected to read and write they must have a strong foundation of oral language skills.
The function of language is to organize, structure and make sense of the world.
Storytelling is highly structured and easily assimilated oral language. The repetition of rhyming sounds, words, phrases and similar events in a story [KH1]The whole person must be involved in the learning process. To be complete, the lessons must include information which relates to personal realities, and not just simple observable and describable facts. . . . Listening to stories is the most fundamental way for people to learn. Stories go beyond the simple acquisition of facts, memorizing, and then manipulating data. Stories help the listeners learn about their lives and work in relationship to non-rational as well as rational experience.
From "The Magic of Learning and Change" By David E. Morrison, M.D.
Stories are essential in the math/science curriculum as well.
Listening to stories teaches students to use words as symbols to create something in the imagination beyond what is immediately observable. This ability to use symbols to create something new is the same skill used for learning math and science. In a good story, even one that is totally imaginary, everything must make sense in terms of the world being described. A good story has its own inner logic. The skills required to organize and structure language are the same abstract reasoning skills that are used in math and science.Math and science also require children to organize abstract symbols into a logical whole. Just as a strong foundation in oral language helps with writing, so too it provides children the necessary abstract reasoning and organizational skills needed to manipulate math and science problems.
Most people are not aware that problems with language can cause difficulties in mathematical reasoning. The verbal tools that clarify relationships in reading and writing do the same job in math. Initiating math and science courses that start with words as a basis for understanding helps students improve their learning by using the power of language as an instrument with which one can reason beyond the observable.
From "Twice as Less" By Eleanor Wilson Orr
Stories address the emotional inner life.
Stories are emotional experiences. Stories give children characters to empathize with. Characters who are also trying to sort out and make sense of a sometimes confusing inner, emotional world. Stories give children the words they need to express what they are feeling, and a context to help them understand those feelings. So, in addition to building cognitive ability and improving critical thinking skills, listening to stories also helps children become more confident, creative and resilient when faced with day to day problems.
Living through experiences in the imaginary world prepares us for experiences in this world.
Many professional athletes in preparing for competition will run through a course, routine, or race over and over again in the imagination, each time performing it flawlessly. Doing so enhances performance during the actual competition. The same is true with storytelling. A well told story engages the whole person. The mind, senses and emotions of the listener all become involved, just as if he or she was actually living the experience. The listener is then better prepared to face similar situations in his or her own life.
Stories teach creative problem solving.
Every story presents a problem or conflict that must be resolved. The story then takes the listener through each step of the problem solving process. In this way stories teach creativity, resourcefulness and persistence.
Stories demonstrate action and consequence.
Stories provide examples of failures as well as successes, of joy as well as sadness. They describe the results of each character’s decisions, whether positive or negative. This gives students a road map to assist them in making positive decisions in the future.
Stories facilitate understanding of people from diverse places and backgrounds.
Stories can transport the listener to any time or place, and they give the listener a person to identify with. For the duration of the story, the listener experiences first hand what it is like to be that person. This gives students greater appreciation of the differences of others.
Stories illuminate the universality of the human condition.
[KH2]At the same time we are reminded that, despite external differences, we all share the same basic concerns of being human.
Listening to stories is the easiest, most natural way for young children to learn language, and it is language that allows us to organize, structure, manipulate, think about and make sense of our world.
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. . . . Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten - a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away. From "The Story of My Life" By Helen Keller
This research, by Margaret B. Meyers, examines the impact of paired folk tales and science explanations on students in third through sixth grades who viewed program modules from the SkyTellers Project of Lynn Moroney and the Lunar and Planetary Institute of Houston, Texas.
The audience consisted of over 3,500 students in eight locations in the United States.
Because few quantitative studies have been conducted to examine the use of stories in science education, the development of an instrument to assess students’ attitudes toward science and stories forms a major part of this research.
During the final stage of testing, the revised instrument and methods found significant increase in positive attitude toward science after hearing the folk tales followed by the science explanations
Narrative – storytelling – can be an effective way to impart useful safety and health information to employees without insulting them or putting them to sleep.
Elaine Cullen, Ph.D., CMSP, is chief of Health Communication at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Spokane Research Laboratory as well as an award-winning filmmaker. She says:
"We are storytellers in this country. There is an oral tradition among what I call the skilled blue collar workers: miners, foundry workers, construction workers, deep sea fishermen, the military. You learn by working with someone who knows how to do your job. You are an apprentice. You are mentored."
Cullen adds that when an experienced miner sees a new hire doing something really stupid, he often steps in and says, "Let me tell you a story. I had a new hand do something like that before ... " and he goes on to detail some negative consequence ranging from injury to death. Sometimes the stories are true, sometimes they're not. But they're always effective, says Cullen.
Storytelling has a rich tradition in educating nursing students, orienting new staff members, and developing competencies, and stories often are more helpful in teaching a concept than a classic lecture. Stories help listeners remember facts and details that otherwise might be forgotten. When events are told in the form of a story, they catch our attention and leave a lasting memory.
Earlier this year, the Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN) launched Safety Net, a near miss reporting system. Its intended purpose is to collect stories from perioperative nurses and clinicians about near misses (ie, occurrences that could have resulted in error but did not). AORN plans to analyze these stories, learn from common themes, and offer practice guidance to prevent similar events from occurring. Near-miss stories also can provide helpful information about the clinical environments in which care is provided. For example, stories can provide human factor details about noise level, distractions, interruptions, ineffective communication, fatigue, and procedure complexity.
yesalliance.com Storytelling in Education? YES!A Statement Concerning the Importance of Storytelling in EducationPresented by The Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance (YES!)August 1, 2006A Special Interest Group of the National Storytelling NetworkSince the human race began, people have told stories to each other, to pass on family lore, values and beliefs,common history and heritage, to teach factual and conceptual information, to entertain, and to form bonds offriendship. Amidst the bustle of our visually-oriented, technologically-enhanced, multitasking, competitiveworld where we share information through text messaging, sound bytes, cell phones, and disks that we burn, weneed to be reminded of our humanity. We pride ourselves as a nation of doers,but more and more we findourselves in the position of observers as we watch others perform in movies, in rock concerts, or on television.Storytelling helps students be active not only in presenting but also in focused listening and reacting, enhancingthe vital skills of communication. Storytelling is an ancient art that strengthens and enhances skills that childrenneed to acquire to function in today’s world. As adults, we work in groups, sharing ideas and building uponthem. Students practice the same skills, often working collaboratively in cooperative groups.In all academic areas, storytelling enlivens the delivery of curriculum, accelerates and enhances curriculumlearning, and engages learners. It encourages students to think about issues, and it can also deliver emotional andfactual content beyond a child’s vocabulary or reading ability. Storytelling helps students stretch and expandtheir thinking. Each state has learning standards that are supported by storytelling and storylistening. We knowthat storytelling produces enthusiastic and engaged learners; furthermore, qualitative and quantitative researchstudies show that storytelling can improve academic performance. Through storytelling:• Connections and understandings are formed about and between the past, present, and future• Horizons are broadened• Understanding of and empathy towards other races and cultures is increased• Auditory processing skills and listening skills are supported and practiced• Visualization skills are expanded as children form pictures in their minds• Sensory imaging is heightened as all senses are elicited: tasting, touching, smelling, hearing, andfeeling • Order is brought to students’ worlds through use of thinking skills• Decision-making skills are discerned• Memory is enhanced and attention spans are stretched• Fear of public speaking is reduced• Writing skills are strengthened as students examine the structure of a story• Characters, events, and settings are brought to life• New vocabulary emerges• Cultural literacy is conveyed• Difficult scientific or mathematical concepts are introduced, explained and explored• Students learn core academic skills including math and science as well as language arts skills• Factual and conceptual curriculum material is effectively and efficiently taughtStorytelling is an art, a tool, a device, a gateway to the past and a portal to the future that supports the present.Our true voices come alive when we share stories. Members of the YES! Alliance, along with other members ofour parent organization, the National Storytelling Network, will continue to bring love of story, the excitementof storytelling and the practicalities of using storytelling in education, in classrooms and in community work, toour fellow educators.This statement was prepared by the Youth, Educators and Storytellers Alliance of the National StorytellingNetwork.To learn more about the activities and resources of the YES! Alliance, please visit our website athttp://www.yesalliance.com/
A List for Parents, Teachers, Curricula-Makers Teachers like to know "why" when it comes to introducing any new skill or curriculum component, and rightly so.
As a full-time teacher I was astounded when I incorporated storytelling into my curriculum. Working up tales and performing them took time, yes, but the benefits affected the reading, writing and understanding of my students in so many ways that I felt it was well worth the time.
Now as an artist-in-residence, even in a short visit, I can see students' increased confidence and facility with language because of storytelling.
Teachers and tellers once helped me compile a list of the positive effects of storytelling on children and their learning. If you want to be able to convey to others the value of storytelling in education, help yourself to this list of all the reasons for "Why storytelling?"
Storytelling provides students with: 1 a sense of history 2 experiences of listening and turn-taking 3 a sense of community 4 the ability to imagine 5 confidence 6 respectful (responsive) listening 7 a tool for changing social cliques and stereotypes 8 expressive presentation skills: ◦ eye contact, ◦ voice volume and variety, ◦ effective pauses, ◦ and awareness of movement, gesture, and facial expression 9 vocabulary development or the use (practice) of new or difficult words in context 10 the sound and use of grammars and syntaxes other than their own 11 an understanding of the purpose for punctuation - for pausing or setting off 12 an understanding of characters and how to give them shape and shading 13 a knowledge of sequencing and story structure 14 a sense of writing techniques such as ◦ a strong beginning and end, ◦ the use of suspense, ◦ the use of sensory detail and imagery 15 an opportunity to make choices (story choices, editing choices, tone or style of presentation choices, etc.) 16 a sensitivity to oral language and its importance to culture 17 a connection between language and meaning 18 an awareness of the language of movement and expression 19 a sense of how stories have layers of meaning 20 the experience of how through retelling we go deeper into a tale 21 a realization of how stories change with different audiences knowledge of how the teller and audience co-compose the story 22 the "fluidity" of the oral mode 23 a chance to experience the shapes, vocabularies and styles of many genres of (oral) literature 24 opportunities to overcome fears of performing and speaking out 25 a sense of personal power and self-control 26 experience of their own natural creativity 27 a sense of power when they crawl inside a story becasue the structure and world of the story provides a kind of shelter and makes telling a story feel safe 28 a chance to "walk the tightrope of a tale" and succeed 29 a feeling of "I did it!" (feeling of accomplishment) 30 achance to be heard chance to show others who they really are - often through the symbol or metaphor of the story 31 a chance to succeed as they see others succeed 32 a feeling that their own childhood loves are still valid (even though they are cool Old Kids now) 33 an opportunity to learn to trust themselves and others (if handled well - if handled poorly kids can learn it is not safe to tell stories or to trust) 34 a chance to command the attention of the group 35 a chance to be validated, to matter, to be seeeeeen 36 an opportnity to see how education is connected to life - especially when kids find themselves in stories or tell their personal experience stories 37 a sense of how academic "work" can feel like play 38 a sense of their bodies in space and how others use space, movement, voice and character 39 chance to shape their own learnings - when they are allowed to choose their own story and keep track of what skills they are learning or what is difficult for them in the act of telling and then to seek the kind of help that fits 40 an awareness of ancient cultures and how stories told orally were the first literature (besides cave paintings?) 41 a sense of how ancient culture is connected to the present. http://www.wkkf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=90&CID=385&ItemID=5000071&NID=5010071&LanguageID=0
Storytelling
Stories can accomplish what no other form of communication can – they can get through to our hearts with a message. In our world of information transfer, data exchange, and media impressions, where we have become callused by so much communication, stories have the power to speak to us about what truly matters…. In our work we are surrounded by stories of hope, stories about healing, stories about fairness, stories about making a difference, stories about community, stories about connection. -Will Rogers in //The Story Handbook//, a Center for Land and People Book
Why would your nonprofit use storytelling to relay your messages? Because facts, data, and statistics are boring to listen to and easy to forget – they don’t move people. It isn’t that facts have no place in your messages; rather, you might try constructing your messages in a narrative format and gently weaving in a few facts here and there. Ira Glass, host of This American Life states it precisely in Andy Goodman’s //Storytelling as Best Practice//: “The most powerful thing you can hear, and the only thing that ever persuades any of us in our own lives, is [when] you meet somebody whose story contradicts the thing you think you know. At that point, it’s possible to question what you know, because the authenticity of their experiences is real enough to do it.”
Nonprofits and businesses alike are rediscovering the power of one of humankind’s most ancient media: stories. Stories stir our emotions and bring us into the worlds of the characters. It is easy to have a cold, hard reaction to the cold, hard facts but when your messages reach above the facts to engage your listeners, it will be much more difficult to ignore them. (A note of caution: Avoid telling a story that does not convey the societal and political conditions that created the circumstances of an individual’s story. Failing to include societal and political conditions may encourage the audience to blame an individual for his/her problem instead of seeing the true shortcomings of a system or may make serious problems seem easily surmountable if people “just work hard enough” to overcome them like the “heroic” individual in your story.)
Storytelling does not apply only to spoken and written communication. Digital storytelling combines video, audio, and narration to show an audience your story in addition to telling it. Digital storytelling can be viewed at any time if you can host the video on your web site. Visit Story Center’s Web site to view some stories and find out about a fellow nonprofit that can help you enhance your storytelling capability. You can also order the book Digital Storytelling from this site, which will provide you with useful tips for creating your digital story. The Llano Grande Center for Research and Development can also help you to create your digital stories. There are an endless number of resources about digital storytelling available by doing a simple search on the Web.
When was the last time someone told you they truly enjoyed reading your marketing
material? With Storytelling Marketing, the reader’s enjoyment is part of the goal.
In today’s business environment, you can buy yourself a well-crafted sentence. But savvy consumers are looking for something more. They’re looking to connect with a company. They want to hear your story.
WORDSource is a professional writing services firm dedicated to making your written
communications bring you out of the crowd and express your organization’s defining qualities.
We write with your customer in mind — the senior citizen making the decision about
which luxury living community to choose, the corporation researching facilities to host an
event, the employee overwhelmed by the current Corporate Handbook. We find out what
questions are important to your customers, and then we find out how your organization
solves these issues. This understanding becomes the cornerstone of how your
communication unfolds.
In the Chicago Sun-Times today, columnist Lewis Lazare laments the decline of storytelling in the latest crop of McDonald's ads.
Eight months into the global rollout of "I'm Lovin' It," the fast-food giant on Wednesday laid out a new smorgasbord of commercials created by McDonald's ad agencies around the world, including DDB, Leo Burnett and Burell Communications
Given that all the work was created with a global audience in mind, it's not altogether surprising to see that most of the baker's dozen commercials rely heavily on music and fairly bland, universally comprehensible story lines -- when there is any story line at all.
Lazare sees McDonald's move into the global "I'm Lovin' It" ad strategy as responsible for a loss of the wonderfully nuanced storytelling that was at the heart of the great McDonald's advertising from another time in the company's history.
DDB/Chicago's "First Fries" comes closest to telling a real story -- in this instance one about two Asian girls who readily share almost everything until they get to a McDonald's restaurant, where one of them suddenly refuses to share her fries. The spot is full of exotic imagery, but with a 64-second running time, it seems too taken with its exoticness and dawdles too long before getting to the point.
And in "Little Things," DDB introduces a superhuman but silent McDonald's store manager who risks life and limb to make sure a customer doesn't get splattered with ketchup. The message is clear here, but again, the spot doesn't really reach out and grab the viewer.
From the standpoint of emotional connection, two spots from Leo Burnett are standouts. The 60-second "Hanging With Ronald" features a super pop-rock anthem celebrating the famous McDonald's icon, who now has the important corporate title of chief happiness officer. Though Ronald was most recently seen shedding a tear in a superb print ad also from Burnett that ran in the wake of the sudden death of McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo, this new commercial is a glorious cavalcade of visuals showing, among other things, a happy Ronald in the mosh pit at a rock concert, playing tennis and shooting a few hoops with basketball star Yao Ming. This spot is all about happiness, and it communicates that feeling with great good gusto.
The 30-second "Moms," also from Burnett, uses a much more muted, but nonetheless gripping montage of shots of mothers in various stages of pregnancy to celebrate the heroic nature of women who bring new souls into this world and then tenderly nurture them. It's a simple but quite effective piece of work.
NEW YORK -- Want to market your brand better? Then tell a story. That's the top finding from an intensive three-year study titled On the Road to a New Effectiveness Model released this month.
The Advertising Research Foundation and American Assn. of Advertising Agencies, both based in New York, set out to measure consumers' emotional responses to TV advertising. What they discovered is that advertisements that tell a branding story work better than ads that focus on product positioning.
Thirty-three ads across 12 categories—from brands like Budweiser, Campbell's Soup and MasterCard—were analyzed by 14 leading emotion and physiological research firms. The research tools varied from testing heart rate and skin conductance of the ad viewer to brain diagnostics.
"We were trying to identify patterns that could be used," said Bill Cook, ARF svp-research and standards. "We saw powerful pieces of evidence for the impact of advertising."
One such pattern was that a campaign like Bud's iconic "Whassup" registered more powerfully with consumers than Miller Lite low-carb ads that essentially just said, "We're better than the other guys." Why? Because Bud told a story about friends connected by a special greeting.
The report contends that in many ways, advertising is stuck in the past. The 20th century was dominated by a one-way transactional focus where ads were pushed at consumers. Today, consumers interact with ads to "co-create" meaning that is powered by emotion and rich narrative. "Advertising has been standing on the sidelines, stuck on the language of positioning," said Randall Ringer, managing director and co-founder, Verse Group, New York. "Telling a story about the brand is more engaging, memorable and compelling than telling a bunch of facts. What worked 30 years ago with a 30-second spot doesn't work today."
Other ads that struck a chord positioned the brand itself playing the archetypical role of hero. In Campbell's "Orphan" ad, it is about bringing together a mother and her foster child.
Ad research firm Gallup-Robinson, Pennington, N.J., found that the spot, which showed a little girl's sadness and anxiety melt away into a soft smile once she was given a bowl of soup, generated 80% purchase intent. Most viewers measured said it was believable.
A similar study from Ameritest, Albuquerque, N.M., found it received 42% purchase intent compared to a category norm of 33%.
But for such storytelling ads to be truly effective, the plots need to tie in to a positive brand message. "When the emotional peaks align with the presence of the brand, or the impact of the brand in the story, the emotional connection with the brand is greatest," Cook said.
While a MasterCard "Priceless" campaign, featuring a father taking a son to a baseball game, successfully achieved this impact, not all storytelling ads work. A United Airlines spot that showed an emotional story of a businessman returning home was deemed unimaginative by 68% of those surveyed by TNS Ad Eval.
Eighty-four percent of respondents said the humor came through loud and clear for Southwest Airlines' "Want to get away" ad, which showed a woman accidentally destroying a man's medicine cabinet while snooping.
A Nissan Maxima spot also failed. At first blush it appears a couple is talking about sex, but in fact they are talking about the car. "Negative levels were so high for many people over the brashness of the guy and his seemingly erotic proposal that they were unable to switch over to more positive feelings once the Maxima appeared," said the report.
The study does not discuss the ROI of the ads for their marketers. Mark Truss, director of brand intelligence at JWT, New York, said the storytelling theory is correct, but the industry still lacks a way to prove it. "Without the tools to measure and link back to business metrics, marketers and advertisers are not going to embrace [this approach]." [KH1]put with communication [KH2]communication
http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/?p=79
In 1998, I made a pilgrimage to the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee, seeking enlightenment. As program director of knowledge management at the World Bank, I’d stumbled onto the power of storytelling. Despite a career of scoffing at such touchy-feely stuff—like most business executives, I knew that analytical was good, anecdotal was bad—my thinking had started to change. Over the previous few years, I’d seen stories help galvanize an organization around a defined business goal.
In the mid-1990s, that goal was to get people at the World Bank to support efforts at knowledge management—a pretty foreign notion within the organization at the time. I offered people cogent arguments about the need to gather the knowledge scattered throughout the organization. They didn’t listen. I gave PowerPoint presentations that compellingly demonstrated the importance of sharing and leveraging this information. My audiences merely looked dazed. In desperation, I was ready to try almost anything.
Then in 1996 I began telling people a story:
In June of last year, a health worker in a tiny town in Zambia went to the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and got the answer to a question about the treatment of malaria. Remember that this in Zambia, one of the poorest countries in the world, and it took place in a tiny place 600 kilometers from the capital city. But the most striking thing about this picture, at least for us, is that the World Bank isn’t in it. Despite our know-how on all kinds of poverty-related issues, that knowledge isn’t available to the millions of people who could use it. Imagine if it were. Think what an organization we could become.
This simple story helped World Bank staff and managers envision a different kind of future for the organization. When knowledge management later became an official corporate priority, I used similar stories to maintain the momentum. So I began to wonder how the tool of narrative might be put to work even more effectively. As a rational manager, I decided to consult the experts.
At the International Storytelling Center, I told the Zambia story to a professional storyteller, J.G. “Paw-Paw” Pinkerton, and asked the master what he thought. Imagine my chagrin when he said he didn’t hear a story at all. There was no real “telling.” There was no plot. There was no building up of the characters. Who was this health worker in Zambia? And what was her world like? What did it feel like to be in the exotic environment of Zambia, facing the problems she faced? My anecdote, he said, was pathetic thing, not a story at all. I needed to start from scratch if I hoped to turn it into a “real story.”
Was I surprised? Well, not exactly. The story was pretty bland. There was a problem with this advice from the expert, though. I knew in my heart it was wrong. And with that realization, I was on the brink of an important insight: Beware the well-told story!
More musings…
In his most recent book The Secret Language of Leadership and his other books, Steve Denning explains how a simple story could communicate a complex multi-dimensioned idea, not simply by transmitting information as a message, but by actively involving the listeners in co-creating the reality of the idea in the context of the particular organization where the story was being told. Their active participation as listeners helps reinvent the organization and create new identities for the organization and themselves. In this way, the story embodied the concept of knowledge management, and was able to transfer knowledge.
The experience of using the oral culture of a modern organization to embody and transfer knowledge has antecedents in the past.
The force of organizational storytelling
Using the magic of narrative to lead from wherever you are
and handle the principal challenges facing all leaders today.
There are good reasons why business communications are persistently analytic. Analysis is the key to good theory, precise thinking, logical proof, sound argument, and empirical discovery. Analysis cuts through the fog of myth, gossip and speculation to get to the hard facts. Its strength is its objectivity, its impersonality, its very heartlessness: it goes wherever the observations and premises and conclusions take it. Analysis isn’t distorted by the feelings or the hopes or the fears of the analysts: analysis gets us relentlessly to the bottom line.
Yet the very strength of analysis — its heartlessness — can be a drawback when it comes to communicating with human beings. Analysis might excite the mind, but its heartlessness is hardly the route to the heart. Yet it is the heart that we need to reach to get people enthusiastically into action. Endless mind-numbing cascades of numbers can result in dazed audiences and PowerPoint burnout. At a time when corporate survival often entails disruptive change, leadership is about moving and inspiring people — often to do things that they are not by habit or by predisposition inclined to do: just giving people a reason simply does not work.
Hence the current business interest in storytelling. Good business cases are developed through the use of numbers, but they are typically approved on the basis of stories. A story can translate dry, abstract numbers into compelling pictures of how the deep yearnings of decision influencers can come true.
http://www.stevedenning.com/storytelling_communications%20.html
Storytelling for communications:
Bridging the knowing-doing gap
How can a tiny narrative communicate a complex idea?
The thing is impossible if we adopt the conventional or media view of communications which views communications as the sending of a message from a communicator to a recipient.
In fact, it occurs by exploiting the interactive nature of communication. Whereas abstract communication minimizes speaker-listener interaction in deference to the "message" being sent, narrative communication maximizes the interaction between speaker and listener by encouraging the listener to imagine the story and to live it vicariously as a participant.
Because the listener imaginatively recreates the story in his or her own mind, the story is not something foreign, not something perceived as coming from outside, but rather something that is perceived as part of the listener's own identity. There is no knowing-doing gap, because the idea is the listener's own.
http://www.stevedenning.com/storytelling_action.html
Leaders need narrative intelligence to inspire action in modern organizations
In his books, //The Springboard// (2000), The Leader's Guide to Storytelling (2005) and The Secret Language of Leadership (October 2007), Steve Denning explains how storytelling is able to catalyze action in modern change-resistant organizations. Telling an appropriate story helped spark thoughts among the managers and employees about a different kind of future both for the organization and themselves as individuals.
"Just think if we were able to operate in this way, and get these kinds of benefits at that kind of speed! Wouldn’t that be exciting! What kind of organization we could become!"
By stimulating the listeners to think actively about the implications, they can understand what it will be like to be doing things in a different way. When a springboard story does its job, the listeners’ minds race ahead, to imagine the further implications of elaborating the same idea in other contexts, more intimately known to the listeners. In this way, through extrapolation from the narrative, the re-creation of the change idea can be successfully brought to birth, with the concept of it planted in listeners’ minds, not as a vague, abstract, inert thing, but an idea that is pulsing, kicking, breathing, exciting – and alive.
Often the changes that need to be implemented in large organizations are complicated, and have many dimensions and facets. Not all of them are fully understood when the management embarks on the change process. Resistance is inevitable when a bold new change idea emerges. The dilemma for managements in such situations is how to turn resistance into enthusiasm when even they only partially understand the idea themselves. Often the attempt to explain the idea can kill enthusiasm before it even begins implementation.
Denning's books show how stories can avoid this dilemma by having the listeners themselves fill in the blanks as the change process proceeds.
Much has been written about the use of stories to preserve knowledge and culture. This book however is not so much about using stories to preserve organizations: it is about using stories to change them.
It’s about a particular kind of story, which is christened the springboard story. By a springboard story is meant a story that enables a leap in understanding by the audience so as to grasp how an organization or community or complex system may change.
A springboard story has an impact not so much through transferring large amounts of information, but through catalyzing understanding. It can enable listeners to visualize from a story in one context what is involved in a large-scale transformation in an analogous context. It can enable them to grasp the idea as a whole not only very simply and quickly, but also in a non-threatening way. In effect, it invites them to see analogies from their own backgrounds, their own contexts, their own fields of expertise.
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Stevenson1.html
Strategic Storytelling for Business Presentations
By Doug Stevenson
People remember the stories! You can give a presentation that’s a dazzling display of your vast intellectual knowledge, but when all is said and done, people remember the stories.
Studies about how adults learn show that memory is formed when a person’s attention is engaged over a sustained period of time, and it is enhanced when auditory, visual and kinesthetic senses are stimulated.
In his book, The Owners Manual for the Brain, Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D. addresses the three stages of memory formation. The immediate memory is like a buffer area that can hold thousands of pieces of data for two seconds or less. The short-term memory is a like a broker that selects chunks of data to remember, but it takes about eight seconds of attention to add one new chunk of short-term memory. A new chunk of short-term memory becomes long-term memory when your attention is engaged over a sustained period of time.
When you listen to a good storyteller, you hear the story with your head, heart and soul. You’re not a passive listener - you’re an active participant. As the storyteller is relating his or her experience, you’re experiencing it as if it were your story. You feel what the storyteller feels, and see what the storyteller sees. You memorize and retain the chunks of information contained in the story because you see the images, hear the sounds, and feel the emotions. The story engages your attention on many levels, for a sustained period of time, so when the storyteller makes the point, the learning sticks. Storytelling transcends an intellectual experience.
When you cram a ton of information into a training session or presentation, you’re doing a data dump on your audience! The problem is, they can’t process your data as fast as you can dump it. Their brain gets stuck in immediate and short-term memory mode. You dump the data on them and they dump the data into their mental trash bin. Nothing sticks. Yet, have you ever sat in an all-day training and had a hard time remembering anything the speaker said, but still you were able to go back to the office and re-tell their stories? This is because stories stick.
In my Story Theater Retreats and Workshops, I perform stories as tutorials. In one story, I act out my experience when I went streaking in the summer of 1974 in Westwood, California and got arrested, naked, by the LAPD cops. When I’m finished performing the story, I ask my students to describe what they experienced. Some say they watched me streak past them as if they were standing in the movie theater line on the sidewalk. Some describe my 1962 Volkswagen bus with a psychedelic paint job or the sound of the cop’s sirens and the flashing lights. Some describe anxiety or embarrassment, and some even say they felt the hot and humid summer night air as they ran right along with me.
For a story to come alive and captivate an audience, the content, structure and performance must be crafted strategically. The story itself is only a beginning. Storytelling is an art and the storyteller, the artist. And, all artists need tools. The actor needs a stage, props and costumes. The musician needs her instrument. The artist needs his brushes and paint. And the storyteller needs form, content and presentation skills and techniques. The great storytellers distinguish themselves not just by their talent, but also by their dedication to their craft. They think about their stories constantly. They structure the sequence and flow of the story, and experiment to find the right words that are genuinely theirs. They work on a gesture or movement until it is just right. Then they rehearse it over and over until it becomes second nature – the line and the gesture effortlessly married together. They incorporate acting skills and turn their stories into little theatrical events.
In order to have an end result that is amazing, you will have to spend many hours working on your story. Your story must be worked and re-worked, formed and re-formed. You’ll want to find the drama and comedy of your stories and let them shine. You’ll create a combination of “show and tell” to fully engage the audience – narrating some parts of the story, and “stepping into” the present moment of other parts to act them out. You’ll want to make your content come alive with Story Theater!
As a speaker, trainer or teacher, if you want your points to stick, then stories are your super glue. Use stories to make a point, teach a lesson and move people to action. Make your stories truly memorable by making them come alive with Story Theater. People remember the stories.
http://www.research.ibm.com/knowsoc/project_whystories.html
Why Stories?
When compared to non-narrative text, stories are deeper and richer, more compelling, and more memorable. Stories tap an ancient resource -- the power of social dynamics.
For example, stories are full of information because they draw on common understood truths to convey more information than is obvious. A story that "engages" people means that the listener or reader adds a lot of knowledge and information, so that the story "as experienced" can be extremely rich in terms of the total knowledge "activated" or "accessed" compared to what is explicitly mentioned.
Consider this example.
"My sister-in-law went shopping at Nordstrom's
at Christmas time. Later, they discovered that their
packages had been lost or stolen...."
Notice how many knowledge propositions are already implied!
1 I am married (or I have a brother/sister and he/she is married).
2 I have a sister-in-law.
3 I heard this story from my sister-in-law. We communicate.
4 She went shopping at Nordstrom.
5 This is probably going to be one of those "amazing service" stories about Nordstrom.
6 The shopping was at Christmas time.
7 My sister-in-law's family celebrates Christmas.
8 There is a lot that is inferred because of what is NOT said. E.g., my sister-in-law is not in the hospital, or I probably would have mentioned this already.
9 My sister-in-law was not shopping alone.
10 She was not held up at gunpoint -- "Later, they discovered...."
...and much much more. With each word, new ripples are created into the reader's consciousness. Notice how the story is much shorter than the list of propositions following it. This is because narrative is deeper and richer than other modes of knowledge transfer. Stories are often a more compact way to express an important idea.CONCLUSION
Not only is the story above much shorter than the list of propositions following it, but it is also easier to understand and easier to remember. When we read the story, we create an image in our minds that is whole and internally consistent, and we can use that image as a setting for any points that are made.
Also compare the story fragment and the list of propositions on how interesting they are. Most people "warm up" to stories. Just watch what happens after a speaker finishes a story and goes back to his or her prepared speech. There is usually a distinct rise in fidgeting when the story is clearly over.
http://www.creativekeys.net/StorytellingPower/article1063.html
Use the Power of Storytelling for Business Information Sharing
By Chris King
If you are visiting this website, I am sure that you are already convinced of the power a good story holds, but how do we convince the business world that a good story holds more power and is more memorable than hearing and/or reading a descriptive paragraph that relates to an accomplishment, a procedure, a product, etc.? This became so evident recently when I was part of a committee judging nominations for the Regional Company and/or Organization with the Best IT (Information Technology) Training Program. There were several criteria that we were to grade. The nominees had been asked to write a 250 word paragraph for each of the seven criteria (because all of them were wordier than 250, we gave them a break in this respect). Most of the criteria were straightforward and asked for descriptions.I could hardly wait, however, until we reached the final one: "Do you have any great Success stories?"
You can imagine my disappointment to find that only one of the nine nominees told us a story. The others blabbed on about profits and accomplishments, etc. The one with a true and moving story - about a young man who was helped by the training to get a job and a scholarship that turned his life around - won our vote. The sad part is that I know that every one of the companies or organizations have plenty of success stories. They just don't know how to tell them. As storytellers, how can we help them?
Don't call it "storytelling." Even though publications all over the nation - and even the world - are writing about the companies, organizations and trainers who are making use of the power of storytelling, very few of the upper echelon will react well to our telling them that they need "storytelling." So many people have the wrong perception of what storytelling entails. They think it is a quaint event that is performed for children (usually in libraries and often is only the reading of books to the very young). We can tell them that the World Bank now uses storytelling for information sharing, and that a company called EduTech produces a publication called ASK for NASA that consists of employee stories. Todd Post, editor, writes, "The success we've had with it (ASK) has allowed us to examine our own problems holding onto knowledge. Right there in front of our noses was a successful model to emulate. Since we knew how to do storytelling for others, why not give it a shot at home?" They then created What You Know, which is EduTech's own storytelling magazine. Read more about them and their storytelling by clicking HERE.
Even so, storytelling can be a hard sell. I once had a boss who when I told him that East Tennessee State University offers a graduate degree in storytelling, he laughed and asked if the thesis consisted of telling "The Three Little Pigs" correctly. At least, I dropped him as a boss, but that didn't promote the storytelling needed by that organization. So, how can we convince companies and organizations to make use of the gold produced by a great story?
We have to use all of our imagination and love of storytelling to work it into meetings, marketing and every day encounters. I am not suggesting that we act underhanded - just a little bit sneaky. We all know that the stories are there. I suggest taking a small notebook to work or to a company you know well (you may do some freelance work for them or know others who do) and start writing down the casual stories you hear at the water fountain, on the way to an appointment, at lunchtime and in the elevator. Start asking those who have worked a long time at the company/organization about the history - how it was when they were hired and why they have stayed there. When awards are presented, interview those who receive them - get the full story.
Start a small booklet of good company/organization stories. Name the heroes and heroines. Ask others you trust to write up some stories for it. The stories should not be long, but all should include the beginning status quo, a character and/or characters, the crisis or challenge (doesn't have to be huge or life shattering), the climax and resolution, and how the original status quo was changed. Details are important, but should not be overwhelming. With all of the easy-to-use desktop programs available today, you can put together a small booklet filled with these stories and give a copy to many of your peers. You will be surprised how, once the word is out, how many other people will ask for a copy. It may be even time to start a small magazine or company newsletter that consists of stories.
Before a meeting starts (if you have any way of setting agenda items), ask if everyone would share a quick incident that they have recently encountered, what happened and if it changed their thinking and/or approach. Or ask what was the funniest happening last week. I know it may take some time to get this off the ground - and, I don't suggest forcing everyone to take part in the beginning. You will be amazed that if you can continue this quick story sharing introduction, those who haven't contributed before will start having a story to tell and everyone will look forward to this. I know a company that started adding a half an hour to the end of their weekly sales meetings for a story sharing session. This soon became the most popular part of the meeting and, as we storytellers know, the most valuable part of the meeting.
Once the storytelling starts to take hold - and it will if you are persistent and keep it going - the next step would be to call a group of the most enthusiastic story lovers and tellers together to work on the "Grand Narrative" of your company and/or organization. This will define what your group is all about. What describes the mission and goals in a clear and understandable way? For example, before the World Bank became known as an information sharing entity, it was known as a lending organization (which was facing great challenges in that capacity). It is OK to redefine your "Grand Narrative" even if you are a large, small, or even a one-person company.
Now is the time to take your storytelling plan to upper management. Convincing reasons that you can propose for capturing and using stories are to accomplish any of the following:
• Share knowledge for succession planning.
• Promote team development to enhance productivity.
• Exemplify values to build community.
• Capture lessons learned to develop best practices.
• Prompt action to change the company or organization.
• Record the past to preserve corporate heritage.
http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~brooks/storybiz/storytelling-business.html
Story - Storytelling - Business - Research
last updated 5/14/2004
We all have been told stories in our lifetimes since we were quite young. There is a common notion that the role of storytelling is primarily constrained to bedtime or play time for children. Recently it has become more popular to extend role of storytelling and the lable of storyteller to include the work of Hollywood filmmakers. "Really, I'm just a storyteller," we might hear Spielberg say in an interview on E!. "Me too!" responds Scorsese.
The true role of story and storytelling is much greater, older, and elemental than Hollywood. The human animal is a narrative animal. We are made of stories. We speak them, understand them, remember them, and live them. In the canonical image of village people sitting around a fire at night, everybody is listening to the storyteller tell the tales of the day, the season or of the people themselves. The tales were about life itself – living it, surviving it and ending it; whether historically or metaphorically. And since stories are such an important part of our very nature, we have no choice but to apply this natural and powerful tool to entertainment as well as to the other parts of our lives, like business.
Story and storytelling are tools like any other - a pencil, a computer. No longer behind the scenes, an increasing number of professionals are discovering the power and applicability of story proficiency for business management, knowledge management, organizational development, coaching, sales, and software interface design. In large and small corporations, storytelling is not just for the marketing and legal departments anymore. Some of the theoretical background for these uses of story comes from the scientific study of narrative, known as narratology; some comes from leaders, researchers and visionaries of the business world like IBM's Dave Snowden; some comes from computer science; and some comes from common experience,common sense, and a common understanding of humanity.
The links below represent a sampling of professionals, writers, researchers, and organizations that are furthering the investigation and application of story in business and other organizational contexts. The list is in no particular order and is not exhaustive. It is offered as merely a beginning taste of how people are applying stories and narrative research to various professional endeavors. Stories are not just for bed time, but for all the time.
http://www.billwoodstoryteller.com/Storytelling.html
Storytelling in Education
An essay on why storytelling should be an integral part of the education of all children.
We all know that stories are fun. We all know that children love listening to stories. A well told story can make children laugh, squeal, gasp or cry. In addition to being entertaining, however, quality storytelling is also beneficial to the cognitive development of children. It is my belief that story telling, not just story reading, should be a daily part of the education of all children. Here’s why.
In a large study following children from pre-school through elementary school, Dr. Wells (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and his colleagues found that the most powerful predictor of their school achievement was the amount of time spent listening to interesting stories. Wells believes that such experiences teach children first about the way stories (and later, other things they read) are structured. Even more important, however, is understanding words alone as the main source of meaning. Since the words do not come with pictures attached, the child must come to grips with "the symbolic potential of language" – its power to represent experiences independent of the context of the here and now. Any activity that helps children use their brains to separate from the "here and now", to get away from pictures and use words to manipulate ideas in their own minds, also helps them with the development of abstract thinking.
Experiences with pictures attached, even when they involve looking at picture books and learning new words, are not as valuable, says Wells, because the child needs to learn "sooner rather than later" to go beyond just naming things that can be seen. He concludes: "For this, the experience of stories is probably the ideal preparation. Gradually stories will lead children to reflect on their experiences and, in so doing, to discover the power that language has, through its symbolic potential, to create and explore alternative possible worlds with their own inner coherence and logic. Stories may thus lead to the imaginative, hypothetical stance that is required in a wide range of intellectual activities and for problem-solving of all kinds." (Emphasis added)
From the book "Endangered Minds"
By Jane M. Healy, Ph.D.
The symbolic potential of language.
The above quote emphasizes that it is the symbolic nature of language that is so important to developing thinking skills in children. When you say the word "tree" all English speakers understand that this particular collection of sounds refers to a leafy, growing thing with a trunk. We can conjure up a picture of a tree in our minds even though we are not actually looking at one. When the word "tree" is put into context with other words (as when a whole sentence is spoken) the brain must use these symbols (the words) to create a logical whole. Stories require an even greater ability to organize and make sense out of these abstract symbols (words). It is this ability to work with the abstract that forms the basis of all critical thinking.
In storytelling, the stimulus of words brings about the production of inner images, an extraordinarily creative play involving the entire brain. Each new story requires a whole new set of neural connections and reorganizations of visual activity within - a major challenge for the brain. . . . So neural potential goes unrealized and development is impaired - unless storytelling and play are provided on a regular basis.
From "The Magic Child."
By Dr. Joseph Chilton Pearce
We learn to speak before we learn to write.
It is important to recognize, too, that written language is yet another level of abstraction, in the sense that writing is actually a set of symbols designed to represent speech. So when you read the word "tree" you understand that each letter represents a spoken sound, and that the collection of sounds indicated by those letters stands for the spoken word "tree", which refers to a leafy, growing thing with a trunk.
In the development of civilization as well as in the development of every individual, oral language must come before written language. Therefore, before children can be expected to read and write they must have a strong foundation of oral language skills.
The function of language is to organize, structure and make sense of the world.
Storytelling is highly structured and easily assimilated oral language. The repetition of rhyming sounds, words, phrases and similar events in a story
[KH1] The whole person must be involved in the learning process. To be complete, the lessons must include information which relates to personal realities, and not just simple observable and describable facts. . . . Listening to stories is the most fundamental way for people to learn. Stories go beyond the simple acquisition of facts, memorizing, and then manipulating data. Stories help the listeners learn about their lives and work in relationship to non-rational as well as rational experience.
From "The Magic of Learning and Change"
By David E. Morrison, M.D.
Stories are essential in the math/science curriculum as well.
Listening to stories teaches students to use words as symbols to create something in the imagination beyond what is immediately observable. This ability to use symbols to create something new is the same skill used for learning math and science. In a good story, even one that is totally imaginary, everything must make sense in terms of the world being described. A good story has its own inner logic. The skills required to organize and structure language are the same abstract reasoning skills that are used in math and science. Math and science also require children to organize abstract symbols into a logical whole. Just as a strong foundation in oral language helps with writing, so too it provides children the necessary abstract reasoning and organizational skills needed to manipulate math and science problems.
Most people are not aware that problems with language can cause difficulties in mathematical reasoning. The verbal tools that clarify relationships in reading and writing do the same job in math. Initiating math and science courses that start with words as a basis for understanding helps students improve their learning by using the power of language as an instrument with which one can reason beyond the observable.
From "Twice as Less"
By Eleanor Wilson Orr
Stories address the emotional inner life.
Stories are emotional experiences. Stories give children characters to empathize with. Characters who are also trying to sort out and make sense of a sometimes confusing inner, emotional world. Stories give children the words they need to express what they are feeling, and a context to help them understand those feelings. So, in addition to building cognitive ability and improving critical thinking skills, listening to stories also helps children become more confident, creative and resilient when faced with day to day problems.
Living through experiences in the imaginary world prepares us for experiences in this world.
Many professional athletes in preparing for competition will run through a course, routine, or race over and over again in the imagination, each time performing it flawlessly. Doing so enhances performance during the actual competition. The same is true with storytelling. A well told story engages the whole person. The mind, senses and emotions of the listener all become involved, just as if he or she was actually living the experience. The listener is then better prepared to face similar situations in his or her own life.
Stories teach creative problem solving.
Every story presents a problem or conflict that must be resolved. The story then takes the listener through each step of the problem solving process. In this way stories teach creativity, resourcefulness and persistence.
Stories demonstrate action and consequence.
Stories provide examples of failures as well as successes, of joy as well as sadness. They describe the results of each character’s decisions, whether positive or negative. This gives students a road map to assist them in making positive decisions in the future.
Stories facilitate understanding of people from diverse places and backgrounds.
Stories can transport the listener to any time or place, and they give the listener a person to identify with. For the duration of the story, the listener experiences first hand what it is like to be that person. This gives students greater appreciation of the differences of others.
Stories illuminate the universality of the human condition.
[KH2] At the same time we are reminded that, despite external differences, we all share the same basic concerns of being human.
Listening to stories is the easiest, most natural way for young children to learn language, and it is language that allows us to organize, structure, manipulate, think about and make sense of our world.
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. . . . Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten - a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.
From "The Story of My Life"
By Helen Keller
http://www.storynet-advocacy.org/news/etsu-nov-2005.shtml
Telling the Stars: A Quantitative Approach to Assessing the Use of Folk Tales in Science Education Eastern Tennessee State University (Kingsport, TN) , November, 2005
Summary:
This research, by Margaret B. Meyers, examines the impact of paired folk tales and science explanations on students in third through sixth grades who viewed program modules from the SkyTellers Project of Lynn Moroney and the Lunar and Planetary Institute of Houston, Texas.
The audience consisted of over 3,500 students in eight locations in the United States.
Because few quantitative studies have been conducted to examine the use of stories in science education, the development of an instrument to assess students’ attitudes toward science and stories forms a major part of this research.
During the final stage of testing, the revised instrument and methods found significant increase in positive attitude toward science after hearing the folk tales followed by the science explanations
http://www.storynet-advocacy.org/news/occupational-hazards-4-13-2005.shtml
Preaching or Teaching: The Use of Narrative in Safety Training Occupational Hazards (Cleveland, OH) , April 13, 2005
Summary:
Narrative – storytelling – can be an effective way to impart useful safety and health information to employees without insulting them or putting them to sleep.
Elaine Cullen, Ph.D., CMSP, is chief of Health Communication at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Spokane Research Laboratory as well as an award-winning filmmaker. She says:
"We are storytellers in this country. There is an oral tradition among what I call the skilled blue collar workers: miners, foundry workers, construction workers, deep sea fishermen, the military. You learn by working with someone who knows how to do your job. You are an apprentice. You are mentored."
Cullen adds that when an experienced miner sees a new hire doing something really stupid, he often steps in and says, "Let me tell you a story. I had a new hand do something like that before ... " and he goes on to detail some negative consequence ranging from injury to death. Sometimes the stories are true, sometimes they're not. But they're always effective, says Cullen.
http://www.storynet-advocacy.org/news/aorn1-2004.shtml
Learning From Stories--a Pathway to Patient Safety Association of Operating Room Nurses Journal, January, 2004 v79 i1 p224(3)
Summary:
Storytelling has a rich tradition in educating nursing students, orienting new staff members, and developing competencies, and stories often are more helpful in teaching a concept than a classic lecture. Stories help listeners remember facts and details that otherwise might be forgotten. When events are told in the form of a story, they catch our attention and leave a lasting memory.
Earlier this year, the Association of Operating Room Nurses (AORN) launched Safety Net, a near miss reporting system. Its intended purpose is to collect stories from perioperative nurses and clinicians about near misses (ie, occurrences that could have resulted in error but did not). AORN plans to analyze these stories, learn from common themes, and offer practice guidance to prevent similar events from occurring. Near-miss stories also can provide helpful information about the clinical environments in which care is provided. For example, stories can provide human factor details about noise level, distractions, interruptions, ineffective communication, fatigue, and procedure complexity.
yesalliance.com
Storytelling in Education? YES! A Statement Concerning the Importance of Storytelling in Education Presented by The Youth, Educators, and Storytellers Alliance (YES!) August 1, 2006 A Special Interest Group of the National Storytelling Network Since the human race began, people have told stories to each other, to pass on family lore, values and beliefs, common history and heritage, to teach factual and conceptual information, to entertain, and to form bonds of friendship. Amidst the bustle of our visually-oriented, technologically-enhanced, multitasking, competitive world where we share information through text messaging, sound bytes, cell phones, and disks that we burn, we need to be reminded of our humanity. We pride ourselves as a nation of doers, but more and more we find ourselves in the position of observers as we watch others perform in movies, in rock concerts, or on television. Storytelling helps students be active not only in presenting but also in focused listening and reacting, enhancing the vital skills of communication. Storytelling is an ancient art that strengthens and enhances skills that children need to acquire to function in today’s world. As adults, we work in groups, sharing ideas and building upon them. Students practice the same skills, often working collaboratively in cooperative groups. In all academic areas, storytelling enlivens the delivery of curriculum, accelerates and enhances curriculum learning, and engages learners. It encourages students to think about issues, and it can also deliver emotional and factual content beyond a child’s vocabulary or reading ability. Storytelling helps students stretch and expand their thinking. Each state has learning standards that are supported by storytelling and storylistening. We know that storytelling produces enthusiastic and engaged learners; furthermore, qualitative and quantitative research studies show that storytelling can improve academic performance. Through storytelling: • Connections and understandings are formed about and between the past, present, and future • Horizons are broadened • Understanding of and empathy towards other races and cultures is increased • Auditory processing skills and listening skills are supported and practiced • Visualization skills are expanded as children form pictures in their minds • Sensory imaging is heightened as all senses are elicited: tasting, touching, smelling, hearing, and feeling • Order is brought to students’ worlds through use of thinking skills • Decision-making skills are discerned • Memory is enhanced and attention spans are stretched • Fear of public speaking is reduced • Writing skills are strengthened as students examine the structure of a story • Characters, events, and settings are brought to life • New vocabulary emerges • Cultural literacy is conveyed • Difficult scientific or mathematical concepts are introduced, explained and explored • Students learn core academic skills including math and science as well as language arts skills • Factual and conceptual curriculum material is effectively and efficiently taught Storytelling is an art, a tool, a device, a gateway to the past and a portal to the future that supports the present. Our true voices come alive when we share stories. Members of the YES! Alliance, along with other members of our parent organization, the National Storytelling Network, will continue to bring love of story, the excitement of storytelling and the practicalities of using storytelling in education, in classrooms and in community work, to our fellow educators. This statement was prepared by the Youth, Educators and Storytellers Alliance of the National Storytelling Network. To learn more about the activities and resources of the YES! Alliance, please visit our website at http://www.yesalliance.com/
http://www.storypower.com/gillard/schools/why.html
Why Storytelling?
A List for Parents, Teachers, Curricula-Makers
Teachers like to know "why" when it comes to introducing any new skill or curriculum component, and rightly so.
As a full-time teacher I was astounded when I incorporated storytelling into my curriculum. Working up tales and performing them took time, yes, but the benefits affected the reading, writing and understanding of my students in so many ways that I felt it was well worth the time.
Now as an artist-in-residence, even in a short visit, I can see students' increased confidence and facility with language because of storytelling.
Teachers and tellers once helped me compile a list of the positive effects of storytelling on children and their learning. If you want to be able to convey to others the value of storytelling in education, help yourself to this list of all the reasons for "Why storytelling?"
Storytelling provides students with:
1 a sense of history
2 experiences of listening and turn-taking
3 a sense of community
4 the ability to imagine
5 confidence
6 respectful (responsive) listening
7 a tool for changing social cliques and stereotypes
8 expressive presentation skills:
◦ eye contact,
◦ voice volume and variety,
◦ effective pauses,
◦ and awareness of movement, gesture, and facial expression
9 vocabulary development or the use (practice) of new or difficult words in context
10 the sound and use of grammars and syntaxes other than their own
11 an understanding of the purpose for punctuation - for pausing or setting off
12 an understanding of characters and how to give them shape and shading
13 a knowledge of sequencing and story structure
14 a sense of writing techniques such as
◦ a strong beginning and end,
◦ the use of suspense,
◦ the use of sensory detail and imagery
15 an opportunity to make choices (story choices, editing choices, tone or style of presentation choices, etc.)
16 a sensitivity to oral language and its importance to culture
17 a connection between language and meaning
18 an awareness of the language of movement and expression
19 a sense of how stories have layers of meaning
20 the experience of how through retelling we go deeper into a tale
21 a realization of how stories change with different audiences knowledge of how the teller and audience co-compose the story
22 the "fluidity" of the oral mode
23 a chance to experience the shapes, vocabularies and styles of many genres of (oral) literature
24 opportunities to overcome fears of performing and speaking out
25 a sense of personal power and self-control
26 experience of their own natural creativity
27 a sense of power when they crawl inside a story becasue the structure and world of the story provides a kind of shelter and makes telling a story feel safe
28 a chance to "walk the tightrope of a tale" and succeed
29 a feeling of "I did it!" (feeling of accomplishment)
30 achance to be heard chance to show others who they really are - often through the symbol or metaphor of the story
31 a chance to succeed as they see others succeed
32 a feeling that their own childhood loves are still valid (even though they are cool Old Kids now)
33 an opportunity to learn to trust themselves and others (if handled well - if handled poorly kids can learn it is not safe to tell stories or to trust)
34 a chance to command the attention of the group
35 a chance to be validated, to matter, to be seeeeeen
36 an opportnity to see how education is connected to life - especially when kids find themselves in stories or tell their personal experience stories
37 a sense of how academic "work" can feel like play
38 a sense of their bodies in space and how others use space, movement, voice and character
39 chance to shape their own learnings - when they are allowed to choose their own story and keep track of what skills they are learning or what is difficult for them in the act of telling and then to seek the kind of help that fits
40 an awareness of ancient cultures and how stories told orally were the first literature (besides cave paintings?)
41 a sense of how ancient culture is connected to the present.
http://www.wkkf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=90&CID=385&ItemID=5000071&NID=5010071&LanguageID=0
Storytelling
Stories can accomplish what no other form of communication can – they can get through to our hearts with a message. In our world of information transfer, data exchange, and media impressions, where we have become callused by so much communication, stories have the power to speak to us about what truly matters…. In our work we are surrounded by stories of hope, stories about healing, stories about fairness, stories about making a difference, stories about community, stories about connection.
-Will Rogers in //The Story Handbook//, a Center for Land and People Book
Why would your nonprofit use storytelling to relay your messages? Because facts, data, and statistics are boring to listen to and easy to forget – they don’t move people. It isn’t that facts have no place in your messages; rather, you might try constructing your messages in a narrative format and gently weaving in a few facts here and there. Ira Glass, host of This American Life states it precisely in Andy Goodman’s //Storytelling as Best Practice//: “The most powerful thing you can hear, and the only thing that ever persuades any of us in our own lives, is [when] you meet somebody whose story contradicts the thing you think you know. At that point, it’s possible to question what you know, because the authenticity of their experiences is real enough to do it.”
Nonprofits and businesses alike are rediscovering the power of one of humankind’s most ancient media: stories. Stories stir our emotions and bring us into the worlds of the characters. It is easy to have a cold, hard reaction to the cold, hard facts but when your messages reach above the facts to engage your listeners, it will be much more difficult to ignore them. (A note of caution: Avoid telling a story that does not convey the societal and political conditions that created the circumstances of an individual’s story. Failing to include societal and political conditions may encourage the audience to blame an individual for his/her problem instead of seeing the true shortcomings of a system or may make serious problems seem easily surmountable if people “just work hard enough” to overcome them like the “heroic” individual in your story.)
Storytelling does not apply only to spoken and written communication. Digital storytelling combines video, audio, and narration to show an audience your story in addition to telling it. Digital storytelling can be viewed at any time if you can host the video on your web site. Visit Story Center’s Web site to view some stories and find out about a fellow nonprofit that can help you enhance your storytelling capability. You can also order the book Digital Storytelling from this site, which will provide you with useful tips for creating your digital story. The Llano Grande Center for Research and Development can also help you to create your digital stories. There are an endless number of resources about digital storytelling available by doing a simple search on the Web.
http://www.wordsourceonline.com/Story_Telling_Marketing.html
Storytelling Marketing
When was the last time someone told you they truly enjoyed reading your marketing
material? With Storytelling Marketing, the reader’s enjoyment is part of the goal.
In today’s business environment, you can buy yourself a well-crafted sentence. But savvy
consumers are looking for something more. They’re looking to connect with a company.
They want to hear your story.
WORDSource is a professional writing services firm dedicated to making your written
communications bring you out of the crowd and express your organization’s defining
qualities.
We write with your customer in mind — the senior citizen making the decision about
which luxury living community to choose, the corporation researching facilities to host an
event, the employee overwhelmed by the current Corporate Handbook. We find out what
questions are important to your customers, and then we find out how your organization
solves these issues. This understanding becomes the cornerstone of how your
communication unfolds.
http://www.stevedenning.com/SIN-148-McDonalds-ads-and-storytelling.html
Organizational and Business Storytelling In The News: Story #148
May 13, 2004
McDonald's ads reflect diminished role of storytelling
In the Chicago Sun-Times today, columnist Lewis Lazare laments the decline of storytelling in the latest crop of McDonald's ads.
Eight months into the global rollout of "I'm Lovin' It," the fast-food giant on Wednesday laid out a new smorgasbord of commercials created by McDonald's ad agencies around the world, including DDB, Leo Burnett and Burell Communications
Given that all the work was created with a global audience in mind, it's not altogether surprising to see that most of the baker's dozen commercials rely heavily on music and fairly bland, universally comprehensible story lines -- when there is any story line at all.
Lazare sees McDonald's move into the global "I'm Lovin' It" ad strategy as responsible for a loss of the wonderfully nuanced storytelling that was at the heart of the great McDonald's advertising from another time in the company's history.
DDB/Chicago's "First Fries" comes closest to telling a real story -- in this instance one about two Asian girls who readily share almost everything until they get to a McDonald's restaurant, where one of them suddenly refuses to share her fries. The spot is full of exotic imagery, but with a 64-second running time, it seems too taken with its exoticness and dawdles too long before getting to the point.
And in "Little Things," DDB introduces a superhuman but silent McDonald's store manager who risks life and limb to make sure a customer doesn't get splattered with ketchup. The message is clear here, but again, the spot doesn't really reach out and grab the viewer.
From the standpoint of emotional connection, two spots from Leo Burnett are standouts. The 60-second "Hanging With Ronald" features a super pop-rock anthem celebrating the famous McDonald's icon, who now has the important corporate title of chief happiness officer.
Though Ronald was most recently seen shedding a tear in a superb print ad also from Burnett that ran in the wake of the sudden death of McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo, this new commercial is a glorious cavalcade of visuals showing, among other things, a happy Ronald in the mosh pit at a rock concert, playing tennis and shooting a few hoops with basketball star Yao Ming. This spot is all about happiness, and it communicates that feeling with great good gusto.
The 30-second "Moms," also from Burnett, uses a much more muted, but nonetheless gripping montage of shots of mothers in various stages of pregnancy to celebrate the heroic nature of women who bring new souls into this world and then tenderly nurture them. It's a simple but quite effective piece of work.
Lazare scores the ads as follows:
"First Fries" B-
"Little Things" B-
"Hangin' With Ronald" B+
"Moms" A-
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003664559
New ARF Study Says Storytellers Succeed
October 29, 2007
By Vanessa L. Facenda
NEW YORK -- Want to market your brand better? Then tell a story. That's the top finding from an intensive three-year study titled On the Road to a New Effectiveness Model released this month.
The Advertising Research Foundation and American Assn. of Advertising Agencies, both based in New York, set out to measure consumers' emotional responses to TV advertising. What they discovered is that advertisements that tell a branding story work better than ads that focus on product positioning.
Thirty-three ads across 12 categories—from brands like Budweiser, Campbell's Soup and MasterCard—were analyzed by 14 leading emotion and physiological research firms. The research tools varied from testing heart rate and skin conductance of the ad viewer to brain diagnostics.
"We were trying to identify patterns that could be used," said Bill Cook, ARF svp-research and standards. "We saw powerful pieces of evidence for the impact of advertising."
One such pattern was that a campaign like Bud's iconic "Whassup" registered more powerfully with consumers than Miller Lite low-carb ads that essentially just said, "We're better than the other guys." Why? Because Bud told a story about friends connected by a special greeting.
The report contends that in many ways, advertising is stuck in the past. The 20th century was dominated by a one-way transactional focus where ads were pushed at consumers. Today, consumers interact with ads to "co-create" meaning that is powered by emotion and rich narrative. "Advertising has been standing on the sidelines, stuck on the language of positioning," said Randall Ringer, managing director and co-founder, Verse Group, New York. "Telling a story about the brand is more engaging, memorable and compelling than telling a bunch of facts. What worked 30 years ago with a 30-second spot doesn't work today."
Other ads that struck a chord positioned the brand itself playing the archetypical role of hero. In Campbell's "Orphan" ad, it is about bringing together a mother and her foster child.
Ad research firm Gallup-Robinson, Pennington, N.J., found that the spot, which showed a little girl's sadness and anxiety melt away into a soft smile once she was given a bowl of soup, generated 80% purchase intent. Most viewers measured said it was believable.
A similar study from Ameritest, Albuquerque, N.M., found it received 42% purchase intent compared to a category norm of 33%.
But for such storytelling ads to be truly effective, the plots need to tie in to a positive brand message. "When the emotional peaks align with the presence of the brand, or the impact of the brand in the story, the emotional connection with the brand is greatest," Cook said.
While a MasterCard "Priceless" campaign, featuring a father taking a son to a baseball game, successfully achieved this impact, not all storytelling ads work. A United Airlines spot that showed an emotional story of a businessman returning home was deemed unimaginative by 68% of those surveyed by TNS Ad Eval.
Eighty-four percent of respondents said the humor came through loud and clear for Southwest Airlines' "Want to get away" ad, which showed a woman accidentally destroying a man's medicine cabinet while snooping.
A Nissan Maxima spot also failed. At first blush it appears a couple is talking about sex, but in fact they are talking about the car. "Negative levels were so high for many people over the brashness of the guy and his seemingly erotic proposal that they were unable to switch over to more positive feelings once the Maxima appeared," said the report.
The study does not discuss the ROI of the ads for their marketers. Mark Truss, director of brand intelligence at JWT, New York, said the storytelling theory is correct, but the industry still lacks a way to prove it. "Without the tools to measure and link back to business metrics, marketers and advertisers are not going to embrace [this approach]."
[KH1]put with communication
[KH2]communication